Claiming miles that I have flown before registering as frequent flyer

Recently I started traveling across US quite frequently – once a month or so, and by that time I haven't registered for Frequent Flyer program in any of the airlines. I flown by American Airlines, Virgin, United and JetBlue, and at some point I decided to create my FF account in all of these.

I was quite surprised when I realized that I cannot claim my miles for all these flights that I had before.

Well, if that was a traditional 'welcome' by a brutal western capitalism, please let me know. Otherwise I would like to find a way to claim these miles. I paid for those tickets, and even though I wasn't a registered frequent traveler yet, I truly believe I have rights for those miles.

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

3

It really depends on what the T&C's say.. but if you didn't register, and the T&C's don't give the ability to back claim, there's not a lot you can do other than register in advance for new airlines next time.

– Tim Malone
Jul 19 '16 at 5:23

Same applies for a lot of FF programs. Qantas - you can only claim from when you joined, Emirates gives you a month's grace before you joined.

– Mark Mayo♦
Jul 19 '16 at 7:15

Qantas does give you some leeway - I think about a month. I remember claiming flights from just before I joined.

– sevenseacat
Jul 19 '16 at 12:46

add a comment |

I was quite surprised when I realized that I cannot claim my miles for all these flights that I had before.

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

3

It really depends on what the T&C's say.. but if you didn't register, and the T&C's don't give the ability to back claim, there's not a lot you can do other than register in advance for new airlines next time.

– Tim Malone
Jul 19 '16 at 5:23

Same applies for a lot of FF programs. Qantas - you can only claim from when you joined, Emirates gives you a month's grace before you joined.

– Mark Mayo♦
Jul 19 '16 at 7:15

Qantas does give you some leeway - I think about a month. I remember claiming flights from just before I joined.

– sevenseacat
Jul 19 '16 at 12:46

add a comment |

I was quite surprised when I realized that I cannot claim my miles for all these flights that I had before.

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

I was quite surprised when I realized that I cannot claim my miles for all these flights that I had before.

airlines loyalty-programs

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

asked Jul 19 '16 at 4:43

wintermute

617

3

It really depends on what the T&C's say.. but if you didn't register, and the T&C's don't give the ability to back claim, there's not a lot you can do other than register in advance for new airlines next time.

– Tim Malone
Jul 19 '16 at 5:23

Same applies for a lot of FF programs. Qantas - you can only claim from when you joined, Emirates gives you a month's grace before you joined.

– Mark Mayo♦
Jul 19 '16 at 7:15

Qantas does give you some leeway - I think about a month. I remember claiming flights from just before I joined.

– sevenseacat
Jul 19 '16 at 12:46

add a comment |

3

It really depends on what the T&C's say.. but if you didn't register, and the T&C's don't give the ability to back claim, there's not a lot you can do other than register in advance for new airlines next time.

– Tim Malone
Jul 19 '16 at 5:23

Same applies for a lot of FF programs. Qantas - you can only claim from when you joined, Emirates gives you a month's grace before you joined.

– Mark Mayo♦
Jul 19 '16 at 7:15

Qantas does give you some leeway - I think about a month. I remember claiming flights from just before I joined.

– sevenseacat
Jul 19 '16 at 12:46

It really depends on what the T&C's say.. but if you didn't register, and the T&C's don't give the ability to back claim, there's not a lot you can do other than register in advance for new airlines next time.

– Tim Malone
Jul 19 '16 at 5:23

Same applies for a lot of FF programs. Qantas - you can only claim from when you joined, Emirates gives you a month's grace before you joined.

– Mark Mayo♦
Jul 19 '16 at 7:15

Qantas does give you some leeway - I think about a month. I remember claiming flights from just before I joined.

– sevenseacat
Jul 19 '16 at 12:46

add a comment |

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

Airlines have a certain time limit till which you can claim missing miles. I am a Qatar Airways frequent traveler and they have the following conditions

Time limit when becoming a new member = 30 days prior to the start of membership

Time limit for claiming miles for existing members = 6 months after the flight date

for your case please refer to the following links
American Airlines : https://www.aa.com/AAdvantage/requestMileageCreditAccess.do

Virgin Atlantic : https://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/us/frequentflyer/youraccount/managefcaccount/missingmiles.jsp

United Airlines : https://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps/mileageplus/mileagecredit/ePlusSubscriptionsCredit.aspx

OR
you may have to log in to your mileageplus account and navigate to the earn mileageplus miles and go to request/claim missing credit/miles

JetBlue : https://trueblue.jetblue.com/group/trueblue/manage-my-points

I hope this helps

edited Jul 19 '16 at 5:54

answered Jul 19 '16 at 5:04

Newton

4,32341640

Thanks! American Airlines and United seem to be the biggest troublemakers for me so far – they refused to accept my ticket info. It went well with JetBlue though.

– wintermute
Jul 19 '16 at 5:47

1

And it seems like there is no automated process in Virgin America web-site to claim miles. You have to log a support ticket (sic!)

– wintermute
Jul 19 '16 at 5:48

1

i would suggest to write an email to AA and United and attach your e-ticket. They will surely help you out. I used to do this on Oman Air and Etihad.

– Newton
Jul 19 '16 at 5:53

add a comment |

If you have a significant number of flights in a small period, besides investigating the credit prior to enrollment policy of the airline that you flew, it may be worthwhile investigating partner airlines that you might be able to credit the flights to.

For example, these are all the airline mileage programmes that you could credit an American Airlines flight to on wheretocredit.com

AB Air Berlin
AS Alaska Airlines
BA British Airways
CX Cathay Pacific Airways 
EY Etihad Airways 
AY Finnair
IB Iberia 
JL Japan Airlines
9W Jet Airways 
KE Korean Air 
LA LAN Airlines
MH Malaysia Airlines
QF Qantas Airways
QR Qatar Airways
S7 S7 Airlines 
UL SriLankan Airlines

Mostly, there are greater restrictions on credit prior to enrollment when the flight was on a partner airline. For example, see this old thread on flyertalk regarding Star Alliance crediting.

Incidentally, it seems your Virgin flights are on Virgin America rather than Virgin Atlantic and Ts&Cs are provided here.

Eligible travel must occur no earlier than 30 days prior to your
Elevate Program enrollment date as displayed in your Elevate Program
account

Potential partner airlines are here.

EK Emirates 
HA Hawaiian Airlines 
SQ Singapore Airlines 
VS Virgin Atlantic 
VA Virgin Australia

answered Jul 19 '16 at 7:22

Berwyn

26.3k658133

add a comment |

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "273"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);

);

draft saved

draft discarded

StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2ftravel.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f73810%2fclaiming-miles-that-i-have-flown-before-registering-as-frequent-flyer%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest

Name

Required, but never shown